Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA · 1993

United States: David Holley sentenced to 275 years for abusing boys across two dioceses

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest, transferred between Massachusetts and New Mexico assignments

Organization

Diocese of Worcester, Servants of the Paraclete, Jemez Springs

Spiritual nexus

Parish boys under a priest whose access was renewed by transfer after each complaint — the treatment-and-reassignment pipeline is part of the documented harm.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

1993-06-05 · no-contest plea and sentence

Otero County District Court, New Mexico, USA. David Holley, a priest sent to New Mexico after abuse complaints in Massachusetts, pleaded no contest to felony sex charges involving eight boys (offences 1972–74) and was sentenced in June 1993 to 275 years — at the time among the longest sentences ever imposed on a priest. He died in prison on 25 November 2008.

Documented coercion mechanisms

parish access to boys across successive assignments despite known offending

Primary record

Sources

national news agency sentencing report Eduardo Montes, 'Former Priest Gets 275 Years for Molesting Boys', Associated Press, 5 Jun. 1993 (archived copy).: Contemporaneous wire report of the plea and sentence.
national newspaper court reporting conviction history report Santa Fe New Mexican, Jul. 2023.: Independent restatement of the conviction, sentence and death in custody.

Related record

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